


The First Wizarding War

by AlexNoelFieldingFan



Series: The Broken Time Turner [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Time Travel, Time Turner (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28632414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexNoelFieldingFan/pseuds/AlexNoelFieldingFan
Summary: Daphne is sent back in time by a broken time turner, and meets a boy she never wanted to; Sirius Black. Can she and Teddy Lupin survive in 1976? Or will someone manage to get rid of them?
Relationships: Sirius Black/Daphne Greengrass
Series: The Broken Time Turner [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2097879
Kudos: 6





	1. No Quidditch Today

Daphne traced her finger along the crack on the Time Turner. It was strange, she mused, as she ran her fingers over the metal. Gold or not, this was metal. Metal doesn’t crack.

The button in the center enticed her, even though she knew she shouldn’t press it. Who knew what would happen? There weren’t even meant to be any time turners left, let alone one that looked like this. 

“Daphne, you coming?” Tracey called.

“Be down in a sec!” Daphne shouted back through the door. Would she? She didn’t really want to go to this Quidditch match, Tracey was just dragging her along. It was Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff, it didn’t even concern Slytherin. The button could get her out of this, it was almost as if a small voice whispered in her ear. The button would be more exciting. It certainly wouldn’t be three hours of sitting in the cold watching a lot of dots whizzing around on broomsticks.

Probably wouldn’t, at least.

“Daphne!” Tracey called again.

“I’m coming!” she replied, irritated, turning round to the door to give her the full force of her voice. With a thrill of fear she realised her elbow had met the button. Her head whipped round, and she realised the moment her elbow would leave the button, it - something - would happen.

“Actually, you should probably go down now, I’ll follow you!”

“Okay,” Tracey called back through the door, “but only because I’m late. And you’d better come down.”

“Promise!” Daphne said with a slight quaver in her voice, as she waited for Tracey’s footsteps to step away from the door. She wasn’t quite sure why she did that, but she couldn’t leave while Tracey was just there.

But it was now. It was the time.

She moved her elbow.

She wasn’t quite sure what happened, at first. The world seemed to shift and wobble around her, before collapsing like water, leaving another world behind. She wasn’t where she was before, she knew that. Her bed was gone, the green walls and sheets disappeared, and a cold stone wall was against her back. She looked up. She recognised this corridor, it was in Hogwarts, on the third floor. 

“What the-” a voice said, and she stumbled to her feet, taking out her wand. A boy was sat on the floor, just like she was. He had bright blue hair and was wearing a Hufflepuff uniform. He was rubbing the back of his head, and she could tell he had hit his head.

“Who are you?” Daphne asked, examining the boy. His uniform wasn’t exactly the same as her’s, apart from the colour. There were a multitude of slight differences she couldn’t quite determine. It would have been easier if she was wearing her uniform, of course.

“Who are  _ you _ ?”

“I asked first.”

Daphne slowly lowered her wand as the boy lowered his, which he had taken from his robes when he leaped to his feet much like she had. 

“Teddy. Teddy Lupin. You?”

“Daphne Greengrass. Are you related to Professor Lupin?”

“Professor Lupin? You mean my dad? Erm, yeah. He was my dad. Greengrass… are you related to Scorpius?”

Daphne shook her head. She didn’t know a Scorpius. “Why are you talking about Professor Lupin in the past tense?”

“Well he’s - he’s dead.” Teddy frowned, like it was obvious.

“ _ Dead _ ?”

“Yeah, he died when I was a baby.”

“Oh,” Daphne realised. “We’re talking about different Professor Lupins.  _ Remus  _ Lupin taught me Defense Against the Dark Arts three years ago.”

“No, that’s my dad,” Teddy corrected her. “And he taught Defense Against the Dark Arts in 1993.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”

They stared at each other for a moment, their brains slowly working towards the inevitable conclusion. 

“Do you mean-”

“Are you-”

“Are you from the future?” Daphne asked finally.

“I don’t know. Are you from the past?”

“Is 1996 the past?”

Teddy snorted. “Yeah. I’m from 2014.”

“Seriously? Is this 2014? Is this where the time turner brought me?”

“Wait, time turner? You have a time turner?”

“Yeah, right-” Daphne felt her pockets, then checked the floor in case she had dropped it. Then felt her pockets again. “It’s gone. That’s weird.”

“Does that mean you can’t get back?”

“So this is 2014?”

“I don’t know,” Teddy replied. “It just looks like Hogwarts.”

“Yeah, that’s the problem. Come on.”

Daphne led Teddy down the corridor to where more voices were coming from. They opened a door to find a few people talking, not taking any notice of them.

“This is not 2014,” Teddy said definitely.

“You sure?”

“I have never seen anyone wear trousers like that in my lifetime,” Teddy said, pointing to the flares the girls were wearing. 

“Right. But this isn't 1996 either. So when are we?”

Teddy wasn’t listening. He was following a boy who crossed over the other side of the room with his eyes.

“Teddy?”

“Shush. That’s Sirius.”

“Who?”

“Sirius Black. I’ve seen so many photos of him, I’d recognise him anywhere. I mean, James is named after him for Merlin’s sake.”

Before Daphne could ask who James was, Teddy was running across the room, and the girls were looking at them strangely. Following, Daphne saw Teddy talking to Sirius excitedly in another deserted corridor. 

“Hi, Sirius, sorry, it’s really nice to meet you.”

“Sorry, do I know you, are you in fifth year?”

Sirius didn’t look like the Sirius she had seen in the Daily Prophet. She remembered when he escaped, every child memorised his face and saw it in everything, but this wasn’t the dirty, desperate man dressed in rags she had seen. He didn’t look violent or threatening. His hair was well-kept and shiny, although just as long. He had on an expensive-looking leather jacket and those same trousers everyone seemed to be wearing. He was no older, no scarier than her. She finally believed it, what Potter and the Prophet had said. She finally believed he hadn’t done the things they’d said.

“Sixth year, actually,” Teddy told him, distracting Daphne from her thoughts.

“No you’re not. I’m in sixth year. I’ve never seen you - either of you - in my classes.”

“Oh, well we’re erm-”

“That isn't even a Hogwarts uniform,” he said looking at Teddy’s robes. “Nearly, but not quite. And I have no idea what you’re wearing.” Daphne felt quite affronted. “Sorry I have to go.”

“Wait!” Teddy said, but Sirius was already off, slightly running towards the doorway, on the other side of which they could see Professor McGonagall.

“Stupefy!” Teddy said suddenly, before realising what he’d done. “Shit.”

“Shit,” Daphne replied.


	2. In The Cupboard

Sirius was waking up, finally, after about an hour of restlessness. They’d worked out it was about 1976 or 7, as Sirius was in the same year as Teddy’s dad and he’d told them he was in sixth year.

“Wh-” Sirius groaned, alerting Daphne and Teddy. “Where am I?”

“Cupboard,” Daphne said apologetically. “Sorry.”

“What the hell-” He searched through his robes for his wand but Teddy casually took it from his robes. “Give me my wand!”

“We didn’t want you to do anything rash,” Daphne told him awkwardly.

“What, like stupefy you?”

Teddy looked awkward for the first time, breaking the cool facade that he’d been trying to maintain. “Shit, I’m sorry about that.”

“Yeah, thanks. Why are we in a cupboard?”

Teddy shrugged. “Didn’t want to get caught. We stupefied you.”

“Hm,” Sirius huffed, sitting up slightly straighter. Daphne could tell that whatever he thought about what they’d done, he’d have done the same and he knew it. “Who even are you? Where did you come from?”

Daphne looked to Teddy, who shrugged. “We’re from the future.”

Sirius frowned, then seemed to dismiss it. “Yeah, okay, sure. Why not?”

“No, we actually are,” Teddy told him. “Daphne had this time-turner, and she-”

“What the hell is a time-turner?”

“Teddy,” Daphne realised, “they haven’t been invented yet. Not for about ten years yet.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. Look, can you just give me my wand and let me out? Then you can be free to do whatever crazy shit you like, I won’t get in your way.”

“You’ll go to Dumbledore,” Teddy said immediately. “Or McGonagall. Of course you will. And we’re stuck here, we really don’t need to go to Azkaban.”

“They wouldn’t send you to Azkaban.”

“Oh wouldn’t they? I’ve heard stories of Azkaban. I don’t want to risk it.”

“Okay, I won’t. You know what, I’ll get my friends, we can get you out of here. Give me my wand, I’ll come back. I won’t tell any teachers. Swear on my friends’ life.”

Friends? Daphne almost laughed. That’s not good enough to stake their lives on. She’d have to tell him as much. “That’s not-”

“Okay.” Teddy handed Sirius his wand and Sirius more or less bolted out the door.

“Teddy, what the hell are you doing? You can’t trust that.”

“Sirius Black swearing on his friends? There’s no greater bond.”

They sat there in the darkness for a moment, nothing to be done whether Teddy was right or wrong. Until Daphne remembered a long-buried memory.

“When I was in third year - Professor Lupin was our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Sirius Black had just escaped - there was this rumour going around. That they were… friends. At school. So Sirius is bringing his friends-”

“He’s gonna bring my dad. Yeah. And, erm - you know Harry Potter?”

“Potter? Yeah, of course.”

“His dad too. That’s how I even know about my dad, about all of that. Harry basically raised me after my parents died.”

“Potter raised you?” That really drove home the time difference between them. Potter was in her year and even though they were sixteen and all wanted to think of themselves as all grown-up, they were still children. Especially compared to the man who raised Teddy Lupin.

“Yeah. After my parents died in - well, you don’t have to worry about that right now.”

“Your mum too?”

He nodded. “They died together.”

There seemed nothing more to say. Daphne felt like that a lot, many of the people at Hogwarts in her time had suffered such losses from the war. So many pureblood Slytherins had lost parents to Azkaban and fighters and Muggle-borns on the other side had lost so much more. But she hadn’t. A pureblood Slytherin whose family never much supported Voldemort but kept their heads down and never got hurt. The world around Daphne always seemed to be suffering in ways she could never understand.

The door opened.

“Told you,” Sirius said, a wide grin on his face. There were a few people behind him that Daphne couldn’t quite make out behind the small crack. Sirius threw them some kind of cloak. “Put it on.”

“What?”

“Both of you, quickly, put it on.”

Teddy smiled and threw the cloak over them, like he knew exactly what it would do. “Invisibility cloak,” he whispered to her as Sirius led them out the cupboard.

There were four boys leading them who knows where, Daphne could see them quite easily through the thin cloak. It was easy to tell which one Potter’s dad was. If she hadn’t known, she would have thought it was him. The same messy hair, dark skin, skinny physique. He even had glasses, although not the same ones. Teddy’s dad was easy to discern as well, if only because of the way Teddy’s eyes were fixed on him. There were some similarities, she supposed. Teddy clearly didn’t inherit the light brown hair (or maybe he did, actually, she couldn’t tell). There was something in the face shape, perhaps, echoed in Teddy. There was another boy, too, a small, mousy haired boy who seemed to skip slightly as he ran. 

They were bundled down corridors until Daphne figured out where they were going, a corner of the castle she didn’t go to often. A portrait opened, and they were in the Gryffindor Common Room. A few stairs (which were very difficult under the cloak) and they were in the dormitory. It looked like the Slytherin one, to be honest, just red instead of green.

They ripped the cloak off, leaving the two of them blinking in the light.

“OK,” Teddy’s dad said. “Who the hell are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harry like fully raised Teddy for reasons. I do have reasons, but I will not currently reveal said reasons. You have to read the rest of the series when I actually write it. It will be in the fourth part?


	3. The Gryffindor Dormitory

“Um, I’m Daphne, and this is Teddy and we’re… we’re from the future.”

“That’s what Sirius said.”

Lupin was frowning at them like they were spies infiltrating the camp. Sirius didn’t even seem to be paying attention anymore and Potter was grinning lazily at them like this was his favorite show in the world. The other boy seemed to constantly have an expression of rapt amazement.

“It’s the truth,” Teddy said shakily. This was it, his first conversation with his father, and it had to be this. “She’s telling the truth.”

“But how though?” Potter asked, still grinning.

“We had this - erm - time turner… you wouldn’t have heard of them yet, they won’t get invented for about ten years yet. And where I’m from, they’ve all been destroyed, but I just - I don’t know - found one? It kind of appeared. And I pressed it, and… they usually only take you a few hours back, people used to use them to take more lessons or something. But this… well, this is twenty years ago. It took Teddy here too, we’re not even from the same time! He’s from like twenty years in  _ my _ future.”

“Eighteen,” Teddy corrected her.

“Eighteen, okay. I just - I don’t know what happened.”

At that point she realised her eyes were fixed on Sirius, willing him to believe them. He wasn’t even looking at her, his eyes were fixed on the ceiling, lying on his bed.

“There’s no way we could tell you’re telling the truth,” Lupin said, just as seriously.

“I believe them,” Potter said pretty definitely. “I mean, weirder things have happened, right?”

“I agree with James!” the other boy said, earning a wink from Potter, who Daphne realised must be James.

“Sirius?” Lupin asked.

“Sorry Rem, but I think they’re telling the truth too.”

“What if they’re spies?”

“Oh yeah, because they’d send this kid as a spy,” he said gesturing to Teddy, and more specifically his bright blue hair. “And her, with her weird clothes. And I mean, they’d get the uniform right, wouldn’t they? But if he’s from forty years in the future - a different uniform would make sense.”

“And why would they say they were from the future?” Potter added. “That’s the worst cover story I’ve ever heard. Unless it’s not a cover story…”

“That’s stupid logic,” Lupin said, before looking over his friends’ faces, and watching them outvote him. “But I suppose… you guys know this is a bad idea?”

But they ignored him. “Awesome!” Potter said. “We could find out about the future! It’d be so cool.”

Daphne looked at Teddy briefly. “I don’t think that’d be a good idea,” he said.

“You sound like Remus,” Sirius replied. “Come on! At least tell me about yourself… go on, do we know your parents or anything? That would be wild.”

Daphne froze up in fear with second-hand panic from Teddy, and was therefore confused when he began talking immediately, as calmly as he ever had. “You do, actually, Sirius, you know my mum. Tonks?”

“Andromeda? She’s…”

“No, her daughter. Tonks - erm - Nymphadora. She’s my mum.”

Sirius looked shocked. “Your mum’s… Dora?” Daphne could sense physical pain from Teddy at this. “She’s three years old! That’s…”

“Your cousin, Dora?” Lupin asked, and Daphne tried not to think about that sentence spoken by that person. “That really is…”   
“Nobody calls her that. Apart from my dad.” Daphne suddenly understood his pain. “Her name’s Tonks.”

“Oh, really? What does she do?”

“She’s an auror.” There was a strange hope in Teddy’s voice when he spoke about her in the present tense, like she might still be alive if he believes hard enough. Although, she supposed, she kind of is. 

“Hang on,” Potter remembered suddenly. “Dora, she’s the… you know. Can you…?”

Teddy sighed with a slight smile, and his hair changed colour. The bright blue changed to a light brown, and Daphne hoped she was the only one who realised whose hair that was the same colour as. He seemed to realise too, somehow, and quickly shifted it again to a similar soft pink.

“Hang on… metamorphmagus?” Daphne asked, managing to remember the term and causing Potter to moan as he remembered.

Teddy nodded. “My mum is.” Daphne could hear the slight pause between mum and is, as he remembered not to talk in the past tense.

“Who’s your dad?” Sirius asked.

“You don’t know him. He’s - he was a hero.”

“Was?”

Teddy shrugged.

“What’s your surname, then?”

“Weasley,” Teddy said, not missing a beat. “Teddy Weasley.”

“Related to Arthur?” Potter asked. Teddy nodded, but didn’t say anything. “What about you, then?” he asked Daphne.

“My parents are about five years older than you, I don’t think you know them.”

“I think I’ve heard of a Greengrass, doesn’t go to the school anymore. Pretty sure-”

Lupin was cut off by a knock at the door, and every heart in the room felt a thrill of panic. Daphne was grabbed by Sirius (he had surprisingly strong hands for someone who looked more like a consumptive Victorian poet than a hardened Quidditch player or something) and bundled under the bed, the sheets hung so she couldn’t be seen. She could just see Teddy being shoved in a similar way by Potter before he disappeared too. Lupin opened the door to reveal Professor McGonagall.

She looked almost the same. Daphne couldn’t really imagine her looking any different than her usual stern self. Sure, there were a few less wrinkles on her face, and her hair wasn’t pure grey, it was black with long streaks of grey. However, nothing in her general demeanor had changed, and she still struck a certain amount of fear into the young Slytherin.

“Professor McGonagall?” Potter asked, the epitome of innocence, which McGonagall clearly wasn’t buying.

“Professor Dumbledore wants to see you in his office. Now, I don’t know what you four have done this time, but I don’t want you responsible for us losing the house cup again.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t do that, Minerva,” Sirius said. Daphne couldn’t see him, but she could tell from his voice that he was smirking.

“Come on, out.” Daphne listened to the four sets of footsteps leaving the room, and McGonagall closing the door behind them. Neither she nor Teddy moved, waiting in silence for some sign of safety. 

It didn’t come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was honestly more sinister than it should be. It's not that sinister, they're not going to die or anything, it's just meant to be a vague cliffhanger (or really just somewhere I could put a chapter break)


	4. An Unwanted Visitor

It wasn’t long until the door opened again, but the footsteps weren’t the same. It wasn’t four sets of young, springy feet. There was just one person. It was slow, and shuffling, and quiet. Daphne couldn’t dare to look, but she wouldn’t be surprised if they were wearing slippers. She listened intently as they shuffled around the room, and when she was sure he was on the other side of another bed, she peeked out the bottom of the sheets.

An old man, a very old man, older than Dumbledore, stood by the bed Teddy was hiding underneath. He bent down, very slowly, to lift up the bedsheet. Daphne knew she needed to do something but her body and her mind were frozen in fear. She watched in vain as he reached under the bed and pulled someone out with a strange increase in strength.

“Who are you?” She heard him ask in a low, whispering voice.

“Lily. L-Lily Evans,” a trembling, female voice spoke. 

“Hmm,” the man said. “Hufflepuff girl?”

“I borrowed my friend’s robes. Sorry, I was just visiting my friends.”

“Very well. Leave.”   
Lily left, and for a second Daphne thought the man might stay and explore, and she closed her hand around her wand in her pocket. However, he shuffled out after Lily.

Daphne waited another moment, breathing heavily, her heartbeat ringing in her ears. The door sprang open once more and the sheet was immediately lifted up to reveal Teddy’s grinning face.

“Budge up,” he said, and she shuffled over so he could get under the bed with her.

“Can’t we leave?”

“Don’t know if it’s safe. Just wanted to talk.”

“That was you, wasn’t it? Lily Evans? You can do that?”

It was strange, in the darkness where she couldn’t even see. But she could hear something, like he was moving. Long hair touched her arm and she could feel him getting shorter.

“Sure can,” a female voice said. 

“Is she a real person.”

“Harry’s mum. She’s the only person here I knew what she looked like, who shouldn’t be in Dumbledore’s office that is. I felt it was safer to use a real person.”

“Can I see her?”

Teddy lifted up the bedsheets slightly to let the light in, and Daphne could see a pale, redhead girl looking back at her. There was something about her, the emerald green eyes perhaps that Potter was famous for (among the female students especially) that she could see Harry in. Teddy dropped the sheets again and shifted back into himself. She assumed, at least.

“Do you really look like that, then? Is that… real?”

Teddy moved in a strange way that Daphne assumed was a shrug. “I don’t really know. It’s more or less a guess. I know what my dad looked like, and all my grandparents. They’re all white, mostly brown hair. Seeing as my mum was like me I always liked to think I looked like my dad. Maybe I do, I’d like to know.”

“That must be weird.”

“It is. There’s a lot of benefits to being a metamorphmagus, and I don’t think I’d give it up, but… it would still be nice to know, sometimes.”

“I’d love to look like whatever I wanted, though. I mean, I get the problems, but-”

“No, I know, you’re right. I can be whatever I want to be. I never had to deal with anything to do with my appearance, if I didn’t like it I’d change it. They don’t even really know what gender I was born as, that’s one of the reasons they called me Teddy, figured it could work for either gender in case I just… changed. I know my mum was named pretty late to make sure, it’s fairly common with metamorphmagi.”

“Huh,” but they were interrupted by the door opening once more, and four angry voices entered. Sirius lifted up the bedsheet and frowned at the two of them there together, but gestured them to come out.

“What happened?” Teddy asked. 

“Dumbledore said Flamel accused us of smuggling in love potions!” James sat down on the bed. “Like we’d ever do that!”

“Evil things,” Lupin muttered.

“He let us off, in the end, didn’t really think we’d do anything like that. But I wonder who said it was us?” James told them.

“Flamel, I’ve heard of him. He’s that really old guy, right?”

Teddy sighed. “He was about 700 years old, Daphne. Inventor of the Philosopher’s stone. Friend of Dumbledore’s, I suppose that’s why he’s here.”

“Why do you look so worried?”

“That guy who came in? He looked pretty old, right?”

“Wait, what guy?” Sirius asked, and Daphne told them about what had happened, apart from mentioning Lily Evans by name. She figured that might be a bad idea.

“Sounds like Flamel,” Lupin said, once she had finished. “But why would he have come in here? You think he was looking for you?”

“If he got you lot out the way, he’d have free range on us. I guess he didn’t know Teddy was a metamorphmagus, luckily. We can’t let him find out.”

“What does he want from us, though? What could Nicolas Flamel want?” Daphne asked.

“Time travel?” Peter asked quietly. “I’d like time travel.”

“We don’t have it though! And he’s… he must know that. He’s Nicolas Flamel for god’s sake. Basically the cleverest man in the world! He _ invented immortality _ .”

“We should go to Dumbledore,” Lupin said slowly. “Dumbledore will know.”

“Dumbledore’s his friend, Remus,” Sirius told him. “He’ll trust him before us. Besides, we can’t risk Daphne and Teddy.”

James raised his eyebrows at his friend.

“What? He’s my… cousin?” Sirius said uncertainly, trying to calculate what your cousin’s grandson is. Certainly some kind of cousin.

“Yeah, sure Sirius,” James said, grinning, before his smile dropped. “We have to do something, Flamel didn’t sound friendly. And he may be old, but he’s powerful.”

Daphne noticed Teddy was frowning. “What is it, Teddy?”

“There was something… weird about him. The way he was talking, it was like he was a puppet. Like someone was talking through him. You couldn’t see his face, Daphne, it was weird. At first I thought it was just because he was so old but he… he could be under the imperius curse? It would make sense, it’s not  _ his  _ motive, it’s someone else’s. And he’s the most powerful wizard in the castle, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he were too old to resist the imperius curse.”

“The imperius curse?” Daphne asked. “But how can we be sure?”

Sirius grinned. “Right. We need a plan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this is a bit disjointed that's because I keep getting distracted by creating extended lore for this series. There are way more planned and I've incorporated Merlin, Supernatural and Doctor Who so far. I've never even seen Supernatural it's very convoluted it's going to be very fun. Anyway Sam and Dean are now related to Tonks (I don't make the rules) (I actually do make the rules but I also can't control myself).  
> Sorry for rambling but look forward to that.


	5. Potion-Making

“Where is he?”

“Patient, alright?” Daphne said, fiddling with her tie. There was just something so wrong about the red and gold tie, let alone the fact she was wearing a boy’s uniform. That’s another useful thing about Teddy, he can make any clothes fit him. He hadn’t changed his appearance all that much, just made his hair that same light brown.

“It’s been ages.”

“Look, he’s with Slughorn right now. He will come back to see Dumbledore. This is the fastest path from the dungeons to Dumbledore’s office.”

“What if he goes a different way?”

“Just read the book.”

Teddy looked back down at one of the school books he’d borrowed off James to look busy. “That’s wrong, anyway. Nobody even thinks that anymore,” he said.

“Shut up.”

Teddy threw down the book in boredom and huffed, while Daphne looked down at her book, her eyes sliding over the words without taking any in.

“We’re in the past and we’re just pretending to read on a bench.”

“We’re waiting for the greatest potioneer who ever lived,” Daphne corrected him. “A potioneer who died six years before you were born. Teddy, you met your dad.”

“I don’t feel like I got anything from it, though. And you’re just flirting with his best friend.”

“Which one?”

“Oh, which one, like you don’t know. Sirius likes you, you know.”

“You can tell?”

Teddy grinned. “James can. I know enough about those four, I trust James’ opinion on his friends to the end of the world. And he thinks Sirius likes you. So…”

“Oh.” Daphne wasn’t quite sure what she thought about that. She hadn’t really thought about it. Sirius was attractive, there was no denying that. But attractive in that way that it’s so obvious you don’t even think about it. So much happened that dating anyone - let alone a man who Daphne spent much of her teenage years thinking was a hardened criminal and follower of You-Know-Who - wasn’t in the forefront of her mind.

“Daphne,” Teddy whispered suddenly, snapping her out of her reverie. “He’s here.”

She looked up to see an old man shuffling down the corridor with a distinctive movement Daphne recognised from the room. He was so old, he looked like a desiccated mummy. She didn’t think it looked like a great way to live.

“Do it,” she whispered.

Teddy waited until he had passed without so much as glancing at the two of them, and cast ‘diffindo’. A lock of his hair fell to the floor without the man noticing, and Teddy’s smile widened in success. 

“Accio hair,” he whispered, and collected the hair in a small vial. “Come on.”

The two of them went back to the Gryffindor common room, where they saw the fat lady sleeping in her portrait. 

“Ahem,” Daphne coughed. “Murtlap.”

“Wh- wh- oh yes, go on through.”

She let them through without even looking at them.

“Lucky,” Teddy muttered.

“Sirius persuaded her friend Violet to have a late night with her last night.”

“Oh did  _ Sirius _ ?”

“Shut up.”

They got back to the dormitory, with Daphne looking round every corridor for someone who might see her going into the boy’s room but nobody was around. 

“Got it,” Teddy said triumphantly as they entered.

“Nice,” James replied.

“Right, I think I have the rest of the ingredients,” Lupin said, examining the small jars spread out over the dark red carpet. “You sure you know it?”

Teddy examined one of the vials. “This is hemlock, how did you get hold of this?”

“We have our methods,” Lupin said with a grin. “We have quite a system by this point, actually. Took about half an hour, tops.”

“You didn’t even have potions today,” Daphne said, impressed. 

“We have… hidden talents,” Sirius told her. Daphne could see what Teddy was talking about, now, especially as James rolled his eyes obviously.

Teddy settled himself down on the carpet, adding various amounts of all the jars into the cauldron that hovered above a small fire contained in a further jar. It was being lazily levitated by Lupin, who was sat on his bed, and kept drifting to the side when he got distracted. After about an hour of watching a cauldron vaguely float around a fire Teddy nodded to Lupin, who placed the cauldron down on the carpet.

“Is it done now, then?” James asked.

Teddy shook his head. “It has to be stirred now. For - erm - twenty hours.”

“ _ Twenty hours _ ?” James replied.

“I’ll take first shift?” Teddy said apologetically, but Lupin took the spoon he was holding and began stirring the potion.

“This had better work.”

* * *

Daphne woke up to a jar gently hitting her head.

“Oi,” she whispered.

“Sorry,” she heard a voice whisper back. Wrenching her head away from her pillow, she looked up to see Sirius illuminated by gentle candlelight, stirring the potion which was currently a deep purple.

She lifted herself up from the warm, comfortable bed onto the floor and took the spoon from Sirius to begin stirring. Sirius just sat there, watching her.

“You’re not going to bed?”

“I’m not tired. My arm hurts, mostly.” He shifted his shoulder around, before picking up a scarf Daphne had discarded by her bed. “Slytherin, then?”

“Yeah. I did think you were in Slytherin, but-”

“You’d heard of me?”

“Oh… just vaguely. I’d heard of the Black family before, I knew they were Slytherins.”

“Yeah, they are. I’m… weird like that, I guess.”

“Oh. I mean, me and my sister are Slytherin, but my dad was Ravenclaw and my mum was Hufflepuff. We don’t really have a house affiliation.”

“Lucky. I’m surprised he’s in Hufflepuff,” Sirius gestured to a sleeping Teddy, “most Weasleys are in Gryffindor. That’s what my mum always said, anyway. She didn’t like Weasleys. I don’t mind that you’re Slytherin, though,” he said suddenly. “I’ve had enough of being judged for things I can’t control.”

“Good. I don’t mind Gryffindors, either. Like, some do. I mean…”

They sat in awkward silence for a moment.

“Are you staying? I mean, are you staying here, or can you get back?”

“I don’t know how.” Daphne tried not to think about her parents, or her sister, or her friends Tracey and Lisa. “I don’t think there’s a way to.”

“Oh, right. Cause I was just wondering… it’s silly.”

“What?”

“Just… I wondered if you wanted to have a drink? At the three broomsticks or… something…”

“A drink? Like… a date?”

Sirius smiled rakishly, clearly trying to hide the nerves beneath. “Heh, yeah, something like that.”

“I’d love to.”

“I’m very happy for the two of you,” she heard James say with a flush of embarrassment from the bed he was being forced to share with Lupin, “but can you please shut up? Some of us are trying to get to sleep.”

Sirius smiled at her, and laid down on the bed she had recently vacated, leaving Daphne alone with a thousand thoughts racing through her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually put some romantic in this one, be proud of me. Maybe leave kudos. That would be nice.


	6. Conclusion

Daphne woke up around dawn, unable to sleep properly, to see Sirius and Teddy talking quietly over the cauldron.

“We wake you up?” Teddy asked.

Daphne shook her head.

“It’s nearly ready anyway. We’ll find out soon.”   
Once more, Daphne heaved herself out of bed and onto the floor, sat opposite the bed James and Lupin were sharing. They weren’t quite spooning at this point, but they certainly weren’t  _ not _ spooning. 

She was also sat opposite Sirius, with Teddy innocently stirring the potion between them, exchanging a myriad of awkward smiles until Teddy began making noises.

“What is it?” Daphne asked.

“Guys! Guys, wake up! It’s changing.”

“Right, what is it?” Sirius peered into the cauldron, as the boys fell out of bed and crawled around them.

“It’ll turn pink if he’s under the imperius curse, green if he’s not.”

“This really is a useful potion,” Daphne said, but Teddy shushed her. Because it has to be quiet to watch something change colour.

The now deep brown colour seemed to shift and change, before it almost suddenly changed to a bright pink. There was a gasp of jubilation that rang around the room.

“So it is the imperius curse,” James said. “So what do we do now?”

“Isn't this proof?” Daphne asked. “We can go to Dumbledore now, right?”

“Not really, remember this potion doesn’t even exist yet.  _ We _ know, but this doesn’t mean anything to anyone else.” Teddy sighed. “If we could just get through to Flamel… the proper Flamel, that might work.”

“How?”

“I don’t know,” Teddy responded with despair. “There must be a way… if we knew anything about him… I don’t know.”

“I think I might be able to work something out,” James said suddenly, before standing up and leaving. Everyone remaining in the room looked at each other with confusion.

“Okay then,” Lupin said finally. 

“Where’s he gone?” Teddy asked.

Sirius shrugged in reply. “I think he has the invisibility cloak. He could be anywhere.”

“So what do  _ we _ do?Just rely on James?” Daphne asked.

“We always have in the past, and it’s always worked out for the best,” Sirius assured her. “Although… nothing wrong with a back up plan.”

The five of them sat there until the sun was well over the horizon. James didn’t come back, and no solution came to them. At this point they relied on Potter’s help.

Noon rolled around, and the Gryffindors realised they would have to go.

“It’s lunchtime, people will be suspicious if we’re not down there. We’ll bring you back something to eat.”   
Daphne smiled gratefully at Sirius. Before, they’d just sent one person at a time to the great hall, who endeavoured to stuff as much food in their robes as they could and smuggle it back to the room. Strangely, Peter seemed to be the best at this. However, that tactic wouldn’t work forever.

“We’ll be okay,” Teddy promised them, as they left the room. Almost the moment they were gone, however, he turned to Daphne. “Sirius told me, you know.”

“About what?”

“About your date.” He grinned at Daphne, who blushed in reply.

“He asked me last night.”

“I know. Are you going to go? Don’t you think it’s a bit… weird?”

“Well it’d be weird for you, sure, your dad was his best friend.”

“And I’m related to him.”

“That wouldn’t stop his family, trust me.”

“So it’s not weird?”

“He’s not… he’s not who I thought he was. You don’t know, you weren’t there, we were all so scared of him. There was a proper threat that he could just get into Hogwarts and just… kill us. But that wasn’t him, that was never him. That was stupid bogeyman who never really existed, that the ministry made up. But he’s… someone totally different.”

“He’s still - what - twenty years older than you?”

“Not in any actual, tangible way. It’s just like dating any other guy. Are you saying you wouldn’t-”

Teddy put his hand up. There was something in his eyes, in the way he was looking at the door, that made her quiet. She heard a low, whispering voice speak softly.

“Alohomora.”

They both wrenched their wands from their robes and pointed it at the door as it opened, but Flamel was too fast. “Incarcerous,” he spoke, and suddenly Daphne was tied tightly with thin, painful cords. She turned her head to the side slightly, and Teddy was the same. They had both dropped their wands.

Flamel stepped towards them slowly, not saying a word. His face didn’t even say anything, he was just frowning slightly, like the sight of them struggling against their bonds was vaguely interesting to him. Daphne leaned back as he stepped ever closer.

“Thank you, that will do, Nicolas,” a familiar voice said behind the ghostly figure. Flamel turned to see Albus Dumbledore, looking just the same as he ever had, accompanied by Professor McGonagall and a very sheepish-looking James Potter.

“And I think you two had better come with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Best friend'
> 
> Sorry there isn't any Wolfstar in this I just had to say that ignore me.


	7. Dumbledore's Office

Daphne and Teddy, now freed, sat in Dumbledore’s office with the other four. Although they were alone, none of them spoke. And somehow James seemed to speak least of all. Teddy had made his hair a sombre dark brown for the occasion, although Daphne sensed it probably wasn’t conscious.

Dumbledore entered, alone, and sat on his side of the desk. He didn’t seem angry, but that did nothing to alleviate the tension in Daphne’s heart.

“Well now.”   
“Sir, we can explain,” Sirius spoke up.

“I have no doubt you can, Mr Black, however I doubt there is any need to. I’m fairly sure I’ve been able to piece together what has happened here, especially with the help of  _ this _ , Mr Potter.”

He held up a small vial of pink liquid that Daphne recognised immediately. 

“I’ve been aware of the circumstances with Nicolas for some days now, however-”

There was a knock at the large door of the office and it opened slightly to show the dark-haired boy from the dorm. 

“Ah, Mr Snape, please come in.”

Daphne heard Teddy suppress a small gasp, just as she had to. She knew she recognised him, although she could barely believe this was the same terrifying man as had taken ten points off her for botching her potion just a few days previously. He seemed so… small.

The Gryffindors seemed to be shooting daggers at him with their eyes.

“I will ask you not to be too harsh to Mr Snape, as I know some of you have been in the past, overall he did the right thing. Severus, I award Slytherin 20 points.”

Snape smiled slightly under his black curtained hair. The Gryffindors’ scowls sharpened considerably.

“If he had not taken this vial to Professor Slughorn, who then gave it to me, these two would be in a far worse position now than they are. I hope you boys understand that.”

James, Sirius, Lupin and Peter nodded reluctantly.

“And, Mr Potter, I award ten points to Gryffindor for having the forethought to go to Mr Snape in the first place, especially after the bad blood which I know you have encountered through the years.”   
“Thank you Professor,” James said quietly.

“And to you, who I am yet to make the acquaintance of, I will award thirty points to Hufflepuff for your rather impressive potion-making skills.”

“Thank you, Professor, but I don’t go to Hogwarts.”

“I am also aware of your circumstances, and would be happy to offer you a place here at Hogwarts. Perhaps this would be better discussed privately,” he said pointedly, and the Gryffindors and Snape quietly left the room, with the four of them casting worried looks to the two remaining students.

“The two of you have been rather impressive in your investigations, and I hope you consider my offer of a place. Of course, I will not force you to continue your studies, but you seem more than capable of it.”

“Thank you, Professor,” Daphne told him. “But we - I - was hoping we could get back.”

Teddy nodded in agreement, but Dumbledore shook his head sadly.

“I am afraid I have some experience with such an occurrence, and am therefore aware that it is not possible for you to return. I am sorry.”

The two of them didn’t say anything for a moment, before they looked at one another. Teddy was the one who spoke.

“I think - I think we’d like to stay here, and study, then.”

“I am glad you have come to that decision. And what names should I enlist you under? Teddy Lupin, I am familiar with you, although we have never met.” Daphne, out of the corner of her eye, could see Teddy’s confused panic at those words, however much he tried to hide it. “However, for obvious reasons, I assume you want to obscure your surname?”

“Erm, I’ve been going by Weasley?”

“Edward Weasley, very good. And you, miss? I am not aware of you, yet, although I look forward to making your acquaintance.”

“Daphne Greengrass,” she said quietly.

“I don’t think that should be much of a problem, as long as you refrain from drawing too much attention to yourself.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Very good. I will talk to the administration, and I believe Mr Black is waiting for you outside.”

Daphne smiled gratefully, although sadly, and left the office with Teddy. Sure enough, Sirius was waiting outside. Teddy didn’t linger, but he clapped Sirius on the back and ran off, presumably to the Great Hall.

“So…”

“We’re staying. Don’t really have a choice.”

“I’m sorry.”

For a second Daphne looked sad, before brightening up, superficially at least. “We can go for that drink, though.”

“Yeah, we can. Come on.”

Sirius led Daphne back to the Great Hall, and back to her new life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Done! Dumbledore will be explained (at least vaguely) at a later date. Probably.


End file.
